Hubert Schlafly, teleprompter developer

HARTFORD -- A key developer of the device that came to be known as the teleprompter has died.

Hubert "Hub" Schlafly was 91. He won an Emmy Award for his contributions to the innovation, now commonplace in political addresses.

A funeral home says he died last Wednesday at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut after a brief illness. A funeral was held yesterday in Greenwich.

Schlafly was a friend of actor Fred Barton Jr., who wanted a way to remember his lines.

Author Laurie Brown says Schlafly, Barton and business partner Irving Berlin Kahn developed it.

It made its debut in 1950 on the soap opera "The First Hundred Years." Schlafly eventually became president of the TelePrompTer Corp.

Herbert Hoover became the first politician to use the device in 1952.

-- AP